on Tue, 13 Aug 2002 10:40:36AM -0100, andrej hocevar insinuated:
> On Mon, Aug 12, 2002 at 11:22:48PM -0700, Paul Johnson wrote:
> > Curious what other deb-heads do in the hours they're not at work
> > or hacking Debian...
>
> I, for instance, am a student of comparative literature and have
> published my first book of poetry this year -- so not much of a
> professional. :) None of my colleagues have ever heard of anything
> non-MS, however one linguist has used LaTeX for his master's degree.
> On the other hand, I know two physicians being familiar with Linux.
>
> I fear that most people still think of Linux as something for
> hackers or scientists only. I, a bookworm, can prove them wrong! I
> see that this discussion could very well become endless, but let's
> face it: the vast majority of users still seems to be
> computer-professionals ...
i could list one or two dozen people i know running linux for whom
that's not true, but then on second thought they're all CS students,
and will very likely end up fitting into that category within a matter
of years -- all the people i've seen graduate who run linux (or unix
flavors, for that matter) are now professional geeks in some capacity
... all in many different ways, but all definitely heavily involved in
computers.
i'm the only exception to this bunch that i can think of (correct me
if i'm wrong, martin) -- i'm a CS minor (music major), but even if i
had been planning to do something professionally geeky after college,
problems with my wrists sustained from my full-time geek job this
summer have shown me that physically, that's not such a good idea
(especially if i want to keep playing viola).
on the other hand, that's only accounting for people i know who run
linux on their own computers. more than a third of the current
student body has accounts on our school's student-run server (which
runs debian, i might add :). that is not to say that they all do much
with them, but i think most users know how to read mail, finger other
users, and use talk. and i think it's safe to say that the vast
majority of them will not become computer professionals after
graduation.
i also know a handful of macOSX users who have done more than a little
exploring into the unix sides of their systems.
</nori>
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